Firstly, thank you so much to those of you who sent prayers and well wishes my way. It means a lot. Over the last few days I haven’t been able to speak about my friends illness without breaking down, now that we know the end is close, but being able to blog about it, and your prayers, have helped.
Okay, now I need to reveal the lie (see Two Truths and a Lie post), thanks to those who played along. The lie is Number 2. I grew up in a completely non-crafty home. I remember mum taking a sewing class at the adult education centre in the evenings and giving up in disgust when she sewed two left sides together and the pockets shut…
Mum did teach me to knit (after much pestering) in grade 4 – about 7 or 8. I didn’t do much knitting until she was pregnant with my youngest brother. I was 11 and she knitted a layette set for him in lemon, in a feather and fan pattern – hey, it was the 80s and she really wanted a girl 
. Actually I think I finished more of it than she did.
My mum has other talents. She plays more musical instruments than anyone I’ve ever met. (As a result I play a few myself, but not well). I think mum gets bored with one and so moves on to the next one. Right now she’s focused on the Mandolin and plays in the Western Australian Mandolin Orchestra.
Mum also speaks 5 languages:
1. Russian (because she learnt it at school).
2. German (because she was married to a German – my father – and we lived in Germany for 6 months).
3. English (the mother tongue).
4. Italian (because one day she decided she was sick of full-time classroom teaching and wanted to be a language specialist and she chose Italian because that is what many of the schools in Perth teach as a second language. She taught Italian in a primary school for the last 4 years of her career) and
5. Mongolian (she has just spent 5 months working in Mongolia teaching English and helping out with a church. Mum spent 9 months studying Mongolian by tape/book before she left. When she got there she could make herself understood.)
I’m in awe of her achievements -even though she didn’t teach me all of the cool crafty things my friends parents did.
So I came to crafting late. I knitted all through my 20s, but the quiting bug didn’t bite until I hit 30 (2 years ago). I can’t imagine life without some sort of creative process, it’s my stress release and there is tremendous satisfaction in being able to look at something beautiful and say “I made that.”
Oh, and because I need a new craft, like I need a hole in the head. I’m off to a beading class this evening. Should be lots of fun.
No pictures of the snow. The clouds stole the tops of the mountains yesterday. I’ll have to try again tomorrow, if it hasn’t melted.
Finally, proof that spring is almost here. These were taken on campus yesterday afternoon.
I’m still trying to get used to the idea that it’s spring there for you since we’re heading into fall. This is like having a pen pal in a far away place.
I’m in awe of your mom’s achievements too! I took spanish in school for 8 years, and while I can understand it somewhat, I can’t speak a lick. I can knit though!
5 languages?! I am in awe of that one. My mom doesn’t knit or craft at all but she is a painter so my crafty gene springs from that I guess. I taught myself to knit and spin and not until I was 35.
Wow I wish I had your mom’s language ability. I struggle to learn just the very basics in any language I’ve taken — some even say that’s true of my English which is a mother tongue
Sounds like she’s done and been lots of interesting places…
I grew up in a non-crafty home as well. I think I learned most from my boyfriend’s mothers and grannys and my friend’s mother. I was adopted and I think I got my crafty genes from my birth-family!
Your mom sound so amazing!
It seems to me there is a stong connection between musical ability and ease in learning languages. After all, what is music but another form of communication.
My son is much like your mother, picks up and is able to play any instrument that comes his way. He is also fascinated by languages. He is constantly trying to learn new alphabets, and surfs the internet for all the information he can get on whatever language is is current fancy.
THank you for sharing about your Mum. She sounds like a wonderful woman. I’m in awe of her language skills- I find learning them sooo difficult…